History of the villages of the Broye-Vully district (Vaud)
The 65 documented localities of the Broye-Vully district, in the canton of Vaud. Each page covers the origin of the name, the main stages of its history and its remains, with sources.
Avenches
Capital of the Helvetii in Roman times, Aventicum has kept its amphitheatre and stretches of walls more than 5 km long. The town of the bishops of Lausanne looks down on it from the hill.
VDBellerive
In 1709 the Bernese avoyer Emanuel von Graffenried bought the lordship of this Vully village and moved its northern border towards Guévaux to join it to the bailiwick of Avenches.
VDBrenles
Since the early 1990s this Broye village on the Fribourg border has hosted the guide dog school for the blind of French-speaking Switzerland, one of four in the country.
VDBressonnaz
Beneath the asphalt of the three-arched Bernese bridge that crosses the Broye here, the rails of the old tramway can still be seen.
VDBussy-sur-Moudon
Between the Broye and the Mentue, a village once crossed by the Roman road from Moudon to Yverdon, which legend says was founded by fugitives from Valangin.
VDCerniaz
Graves from the 8th-10th centuries at La Morettaz and early medieval fortifications at the place called Le Château long predate the first mention of Cerniaz.
VDChabrey
Off the Pointe de Montbec, under 1 to 3 metres of water, lie the piles of a Final Bronze Age village, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011.
VDChampmartin
On the shore of lac de Neuchâtel, this street village has yielded a Bronze Age lakeside settlement, excavated three times between 1855 and 1920. It has been united with Cudrefin since 2002.
VDChamptauroz
A possession of the priory of Lutry from 1338, Champtauroz turned its old parish church into a school in 1840 and built a new temple in 1900.
VDChavannes-sur-Moudon
On the right bank of the Broye, on the Fribourg border, a burial mound of the early Iron Age, from the Hallstatt period, is the oldest known trace of human presence.
VDChesalles-sur-Moudon
Born in Chesalles-sur-Moudon, Daniel Moginié rose to omrah and governor of the Punjab at the court of the Grand Mughal. He died in Agra in 1749.
VDChesard
A Broye hamlet that was home to Jean Marmier, notary at Grandcour from 1697 to 1717, and that gives its name to a stream.
VDChevroux
About a dozen Neolithic and Bronze Age lakeside villages along its shore, two of them UNESCO-listed, and since 1970 a 950-berth marina, one of the largest in Switzerland.
VDCombremont-le-Grand
At Le Cerisier, near early medieval graves, three well-shaped pits arranged in a triangle remain a mystery. The castle, built around 1330-1340, bears the arms of the Mestral family dated 1537.
VDCombremont-le-Petit
In the 17th century, Bern stripped the Mestral of the lordship of Combremont-le-Petit, citing a procedural irregularity in a witchcraft trial.
VDConstantine
Beneath the church of Saint-Martin in Constantine, renovated in 1675-1680 by Abraham Dünz I, an 11th-century necropolis has been uncovered.
VDCorcelles-le-Jorat
From the Bottens to the Poliers, several families held the lordship of Corcelles in turn. Its castle was rebuilt in 1769-1771.
VDCorcelles-près-Payerne
In 1955 a hoard of 1'118 coins from the 11th century was found at Corcelles. The village long belonged to the domain of Payerne before breaking away in the early 19th century.
VDCotterd
This hamlet above Lake Morat gave its name to one of the smallest parishes in the canton. From 1825 to 1864 a well-known girls' boarding school operated here.
VDCremin
According to local tradition, Cremin was first called «Crêt-Marc», «the Crêt above the marsh», after a marsh that has since been drained.
VD · TownCudrefin
Founded by the House of Savoy between 1246 and 1255 on Lake Neuchâtel, Cudrefin is one of the rare new towns in Vaud with a concentric quadrangular plan.
VDCurtilles
In the 9th century two synods were held at Curtilles, one of the oldest possessions of the bishops of Lausanne. On 1 January 2027 the village becomes a locality of Lucens.
VDDompierre
Beneath the church of 1839, walls uncovered in 1975 reveal a building even older than the 12th-century church of Notre-Dame.
VDDonatyre
The village grew up against the Roman wall of Aventicum: part of it lies inside the line of the ancient rampart, the rest outside.
VDFaoug
A beech for the French name, a peacock for the German name Pfauen: the coat of arms of Faoug, on the shore of Lake Morat, shows both.
VDForel-sur-Lucens
In 1888 Forel-sur-Lucens pulled down its original chapel and reused the stones that same year to build its school.
VDGrandcour
Founded in 1381, Grandcour's «Milice bourgeoise» is the oldest shooting society still in existence in the canton of Vaud.
VDGranges-près-Marnand
Since the early Middle Ages four churches have stood one after another on the same spot. Mentioned as early as 881, the village has three geese on its coat of arms and has been part of Valbroye since 2011.
VDGranges-sous-Trey
When the Lausanne-Lyss line opened in 1876, after bitter political struggles between Vaud and Fribourg, Granges-sous-Trey got its own railway halt.
VDHenniez
Its mineral springs fed baths from 1688 and, since 1905, a bottled water that supports one of the Broye's main businesses.
VDHermenches
In a farm building in Hermenches a villager displays more than 3'000 uniforms. The castle, centre of a small lordship created in 1641, now houses a care home.
VDLovatens
In the 1970s this ridge village above the Broye lost its café, post office, school and two shops. In 2004 it had nine farms.
VDLucens
On 21 January 1969 the experimental nuclear plant dug beneath Lucens suffered a level 4 accident. Above the Broye also stands the castle of the bishops of Lausanne.
VDMarnand
From 1818 to 1876 the staging post at Marnand, on the road to Berne, kept 80 to 120 horses permanently available, until the Broye railway arrived.
VDMissy
A possession of the Priory of Payerne from 1148, Missy is a street village in the Broye plain whose farmers all also work land in the canton of Fribourg.
VDMontet (Cudrefin)
On its hill above Lake Neuchâtel, Montet was in the Middle Ages the seat of the parish to which the new town of Cudrefin, founded by Peter of Savoy, belonged.
VDMontmagny
Wine-growing village on the heights of the Mont Vully, between Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Morat, now part of the municipality of Vully-les-Lacs.
VD · TownMoudon
Heir to the Roman vicus of Minnodunum, Moudon was the capital of Savoyard Vaud, and its liberties of 1285 served as a model for the other towns of Vaud.
VDMur (VD)
Split in two by the border between Vaud and Fribourg, Mur saw a "War of the fountain" in 1788, a border dispute over the use of water.
VDOleyres
On the hill above the Broye plain, at the border with Fribourg, a street-village whose inhabitants kept their nickname of Foxes (Renards) until the merger with Avenches.
VDOulens-sur-Lucens
Former farming village of the Vaud Broye region, on the left bank of the Broye, renowned for its tobacco cultivation and its old mill, incorporated into the municipality of Lucens since 2011.
VD · TownPayerne
In the 12th century the monks forged a « testament of Queen Bertha » to make her the founder of Payerne, the town that grew up around their Romanesque abbey church.
VDPrévonloup
On this land of the Bishop of Lausanne, the castellan of Romont had to take down in 1455 the gallows he had set up at Prévonloup.
VDRessudens
The frescoes painted in 1376 in the church of Ressudens for Guillaume de Grandson were whitewashed at the Reformation and rediscovered in 1922-1923.
VDRopraz
The village enters history in 1234, when Guillaume de Goumoëns grants his peasants rights to use wood in the Jorat.
VDRossenges
Separated from Moudon in 1749, Rossenges became a commune with statutes approved by Sigismond de Cerjat. It now has 82 inhabitants.
VDRossens
A seigneury under the bishop of Lausanne, Rossens had only four tax households around 1740-1741. In 2006 it merged with Villarzel and Sédeilles.
VDSalavaux
Born at a crossroads at the foot of the Vully, near a bridge over the Broye, the village stayed split in two, Bellerive to the north and Constantine to the south, until 2011.
VDSarzens
In 2016 Sarzens was the only Swiss municipality to vote for the unconditional basic income. Bankrupted after the fire of 1846, it was run by the State from 1848 to 1989.
VDSassel
In 1798 the Helvetic Republic placed Sassel in the Fribourg district of Estavayer-le-Lac. From 1802 this Broye village took steps to join Vaud.
VDSédeilles
A farming village in the Vaud Broye built on the remains of a Roman settlement, where a Roman villa was found in 1907. It has been part of the municipality of Villarzel since 2006.
VDSeigneux
In the 12th century the bishop of Lausanne ceded land at Seigneux to a noble of Dompierre. Between 1221 and 1229 Bishop Guillaume d'Ecublens bought part of it back.
VDSyens
A possession of the Abbey of Saint-Maurice in 1018, Syens formed a seigneury with Rossenges and Bressonnaz in the Middle Ages. In 1795 the villagers bought out its feudal rights.
VDTrey
Street village in the Broye valley, between Payerne and the Fribourg border, inhabited since prehistory and long known for its Cornamusaz institute.
VDTreytorrens
Treytorrens is thought to have grown around a 13th-century fortified house that still stands. Its church of Saint-Jean-l'Évangéliste, rebuilt in the 15th century, is of national importance.
VD · Merger 2011Valbroye
Recorded from 881, Granges-près-Marnand is the seat of a commune of eight Broye villages, joined in 2011 under the name Valbroye.
VDVallamand
On the shore of Lake Morat, Vallamand-Dessous keeps two Bronze Age pile-dwelling sites and a Baroque castle reportedly bought by Georges Cailler in 1914.
VDVers-chez-Perrin
In 1519 the abbey of Payerne granted the people of Vers-chez-Perrin rights of use in its forests, confirmed by Bern in 1538 and managed since 1862 by a Régie.
VDVillars-Bramard
Broye village that never had its own parish church: its chapel of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, recorded in 1453, always depended on Dompierre.
VDVillars-le-Comte
Since 1989 this farming village on the road from Lucens to Thierrens, once land of the Bishop of Lausanne, has been home to an organ workshop.
VDVillars-le-Grand
Former village of the Vaud Vully, on the shore of Lake Morat, which formed a single municipality with Chabrey in the 15th century.
VDVillarzel
Town that grew up around the Bishop of Lausanne's castle, of which only the tower survives, and where peace between the bishop and Louis II of Savoy-Vaud was signed in 1316.
VDVucherens
Farming village of the Jorat, between the valleys of the Flon de Carouge and the Bressonnaz, mentioned since 1224, with its church of 1737 dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Pancras.
VDVulliens
Centre of a large lordship in the northern Jorat, recorded from 1141, whose name is said to mean «among Wille's people».
VD · Merger 2011Vully-les-Lacs
Seven communes joined in 2011, after Cudrefin's no had sunk a first eight-commune plan.